Rise of the Demon God

All he wanted was to get even stronger. With the Heavenly Artifact, he might have a stronger chance to kill Lang Jing.

Even though he thought of the possibility, it was all just an assumption, so he didn't let it get to his head as he began his cultivation. He could feel that he was close to a breakthrough and soon he would be a 3rd stage Earth Realm cultivator.

****

The Beast Region was a place filled with heavenly herbs and dense Qi. Just staying inside the beast region was enough for a beast to get stronger, but this beautiful place was reserved for Long Chen's beasts as it existed inside his Ancient Ring.

At the moment, all of Long Chen's beasts were together except Orion that hadn't returned from quite some time.

Little Snow was still sleeping in the shade of the tree, the Heart Devouring Insect was lying on top of a leaf of the tree.

The Sun Destroying Condor was drinking water from the beautiful lake nearby.

The Dark Horned Armored Rhino and the Snake Monarch were together.

It seemed as if Snake Monarch was telling the Dark Horned Armored Rhino a story.

"And then I told the Heavenly Emperor that I can't marry his daughter. She is too ugly for this Monarch. That poor guy started begging, but I just kicked him and made him fly back. He crashed into the wall," The Snake Monarch said proudly.

"Uaa," The Dark Horned Armored Rhino gave a light whimper.

"What? What do you mean that I don't have legs and you don't believe that I could kick him? This Monarch never lies! Which idiot told you that you must have legs to kick? I kicked him with my tail!" The Snake Monarch said.

The Dark Horned Armored Rhino nodded his head.

"Hmm! Good. You're not as stupid as you look. Anyways, let me continue,"

"Then I left the Palace, but the daughter of the Heavenly Emperor came running after me. She told me that she will always wait for me and never marry anyone else," The Snake Monarch finished the story.

He looked towards the Dark Horned Armored Rhino and saw that he was stunned.

"You're amazed that I'm so awesome, right? That's a normal reaction. Your master was just like that when he saw me," The Snake Monarch said proudly, but he saw that the Dark Horned Armored Rhino stood up and started running.

"Hmm? What happened to him? Is he role-playing the daughter of Heavenly Emperor and trying to show me how he runs?" The Snake Monarch thought.

He looked in the direction the Dark Horned Armored Rhino was running in.

"Now who the heck is that dude?" The Snake Monarch let out as he saw Orion coming from a distant horizon.

The Dark Horned Armored Rhino stopped before Orion and it seemed as if they talked about something before both of them started walking back.

Orion walked up to Little Snow. Little snow woke up and looked excited to see Orion. After talking to her, Orion talked to the Heart Devouring Insect and the Sun Destroying Condor.

It had been so long since he had seen them. Even Orion was quite glad to be out of that prison and back to the family he had left.

The Snake Monarch saw Orion coming to him and raised his head proudly as if he wanted to tell Orion who the boss was.

"Arr,"

"No, I'm not the new tamed beast of your master. Well, I am the tamed beast of your master, but this King is much more than just that! I'm the dark hand being the curtains," Snake Monarch replied to Orion.

"Arrg?"

"What do you mean? Do you think I can't be the Dark Hand Behind the curtains just because I don't have a hand? Why is every beast in this place so literal! It's an idiom! It means I'm the real boss! You guys might think that the fluffy is the boss, but I'm the real King here! I just let her handle the stuff for me," The Snake Monarch said proudly.

Orion made a slight sound as he looked at the Snake Monarch in confusion.

"How dare you ask if this King is crazy? Do you want to fight? Let's fight! I'll take you on and show you the real might of the king!" Snake Monarch let out angrily. His loud voice was enough to wake up Little Snow.

The Snake Monarch saw little snow looking at him and he immediately turned silent.

"Hmph! I'll forgive you just because you're new here!" The Snake Monarch said to Orion in a low voice.

Orion looked as if he had given up on trying to get close. He just walked back and sat near little snow as he began resting.

****

A day had passed and it was already morning. Long Chen cultivated all night long, but he wasn't able to break through. He could feel that he was just at the edge of a breakthrough. He was sure that today, he will break through to the 3rd stage of the Earth Realm.

It was early morning and he stood up as he left his courtyard. The results were about to be updated soon.

As Long Chen got to the Ranking Hall, he saw that most of the Grand Elders and black-robed elders were already there.

He walked to the front and realized that the results weren't updated yet. He stood beside Lang Jing.

He could also see the Sect Master. It was the first time he saw the Sect Master of the Dark Soul Sect and he found her just as the rumors described her. Pretty as a flower and fierce as a thunder.

The Sect Master saw Long Chen looking at her and she looked back, but Long Chen had shifted his gaze by then and he was looking at Mu Zheng who had a proud smile on his face.

"The scores are changing," An elder pointed out, attracting everyone's attention.

Everyone started looking at the board and they saw the scores of both Long Chen and Mu Zheng increasing.

Previously, their score wasn't even 300, but now it had crossed 400.

Mu Zheng's score stopped at 402, whereas Long Chen's score kept increasing. From 400, it got to 500 and then 600.

Long Chen's final score turned out to be 719. It was clear that he had won by a landslide.

"H-how is that possible! There must be something wrong with the ranking hall! He cheated!" Mu Zheng let out loudly.

All the other Elders looked at him as they sighed. They could see that he wasn't able to accept reality.

"Silence!" The Sect Elder scolded Mu Zhenfeng who closed his mouth, but his venomous gaze never left Long Chen.

"It's decided. Long Chen will be the captain of the team. We can all meet tomorrow to select other members of the team," The Sect Master said as she left with Mu Zheng.

"Good work," Lang Jing also praised Long Chen before he left with the Prime Grand Elder. All the other Elders departed as well, but most of them didn't forget to congratulate Long Chen before leaving. There were only 2 people that didn't congratulate him, Grand Elder Chu and a Black-Robed Elder whose disciple Long Chen had beaten previously.

Long Chen also left and walked back to his courtyard. What happened next had nothing to do with him. The sect can decide on the team and they will finally give him information about what this whole thing is about, but that was all for the later.

For now, he only wanted to go back and breakthrough. He was so close, if he didn't have to come here today, he would have stayed in his courtyard and already broken through.